Stranger Things Had Happened
by Sadie
Summary: “Jack felt his jaw unhinge as he put two and two together and came up with ‘it’s a 16 year old Sam Carter’. And yet, stranger things had happened. Just not recently.”


Title: Stranger Things Had Happened

By: Sadie

Category: Humour/Romance undertones

Couple(s): Sam/Jack (midget versions)

Rating: G

Season: 8

Spoilers: Fragile Balance (MAJOR spoilers. As in you won't understand the fanfic if you haven't seen/heard of this episode.)

Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate SG-1. It's the property of Showtime/Viacom, Sci-Fi Channel US, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions and Gekko Productions. I know, life ain't fair, eh?

Summary: _"Jack felt his jaw unhinge as he put two and two together and came up with 'it's a 16 year old Sam Carter'. And yet, stranger things had happened. Just not recently."_

Authors Note: I just want to say that the idea for this fanfic is in no way original. I've been lurking around and have had the pleasure of reading a lot of well-written mini!Jack/mini!Sam fics. The idea was just too tempting… I had to include my own personal quirks to this universe. g

Also: I have no idea if Jack has Level 4 Hand-to-Hand (or even if it goes up to 4 levels… eep!). This was a fiction of my own, taking into account that we know that Sam has her Level 3 Advanced Hand-to-Hand training. If anyone happens to know more about US military training, or an episode reference that I missed, I'd really appreciate an email or a review (what can I say? I'm curious).

xxx

Jonathon O'Neill Jr. barely felt the familiar jab at his ribs. He spared a glance up from his drawing of the X-302 (probably a violation of all those nondisclosure contracts he'd signed, but Jack couldn't bring himself to care) to see Tom pointing at the front of the classroom. Derivatives? Why in hell (…been there) would he want to pay attention to that?

Jack went back to his drawing. Something wasn't quite right; the fuel capacitors needed to be tilted slightly…

Jack involuntarily grabbed his side from a sharper jab from Tom. He glared at Tom, wondering if it would blow his cover if he (140 pound weakling he was currently) beat the crap out of the Quarter Back of the football team (who was at least 190 pounds).

Tom (who wasn't scared of him… he should be. Level 4 Hand-to-Hand. Not that he knew that) was still jerking his head towards the front of the classroom. Okay, Jack knew he should be paying more attention. He rolled his eyes dramatically (comments about the irony of Tom of all people telling him to pay attention on the tip of his tongue), and looked at the black board.

There was an unfamiliar girl. A very pretty girl who seemed to be the current subject of Tom's drool (and suddenly the world made sense again… not that it ever really had). But before Jack should get back to his drawing, he caught a bit of was the new girl was saying: "I think it's fairly obvious that what we're interested in is the instantaneous rate of change of f at x with respect to x when x equals a…"

She was smart. Really smart. And for some reason that made Jack like her.

Soon Jack found himself entranced by the skinny girl with the long blond hair. Sure she was a bit young for him. But let's face it, everyone was. She'd been jabbering on for the last twenty minutes to Mr. Banes about First Principles or something like that. Apparently he'd made a mistake concerning limits? The entire class was snickering at Mr. Banes' confusion and his attempts to contradict the blond (Mr. Banes was not one of Mountain Springs' favourite teachers). On top of it all, there was something oddly familiar about her that Jack couldn't quite put his finger on.

At the end of the class, Jack knew what he had to do. He had to talk to her before Tom could. This would simultaneously achieve two goals: piss Tom off (his side still hurt) and save this poor girl from Tom's lecherous ways. What could he say? He always was a sucker for damsels in distress.

The bell rang, ending the class and school for the day. Jack caught Tom's eye, gave him a small smirk, and promptly swaggled over to the girl.

"I never understood how some people could like calculus," Jack grumbled to the petite blond, by way of introduction. Jack could feel the daggers as the football player left the classroom, along with most of the students.

"And here I was hoping you'd learn to appreciate it the second time around, sir," the girl replied, eyes dancing.

Jack felt his jaw unhinge as he put two and two together and came up with 'it's a 16 year old Sam Carter'. And yet, stranger things had happened. Just not recently.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Jack was muttering under his breath. "This is not happening."

They were walking to Jack's apartment. Not that Sam knew that. She was just following him.

"It's nice to see you too," she grumbled.

"Not that I'm not happy to see you," Jack apologized (and looked at her, really looked at her for the first time), "It's just…"

"Weird?" she suggested.

"Typical?" he joked back in return. Continuing with his train of thought, he asked, "So what happened? If it's the Asgard again, I swear, I don't care that I'm sixteen years old with an acne problem, I'm going to kick their shinny grey asses…"

She quickly interrupted him, "It wasn't the Asgard."

"So…?" he hedged, looking for an explanation.

"It's a long story, sir..." She corrected herself a moment later, seeing the younger counterpart's scowl: "…Jack."

"I'm not getting any younger, Sam." He replied, emphasizing her first name. "Again. At least I hope not."

She smiled that small 'I'm humouring you because you're my commanding officer' smile –and Jack felt his own grin grow. God, he had missed her.

Sam did a quick survey to determine if there were any interlopers around. Seeing no one and getting nod from Jack as confirmation, she whispered in his ear, "Two months ago, we went to P3X 979. It was a typical mission gone awry."

"Did Daniel die?"

"No… not really."

Jack raised an eyebrow, "Couldn't have been that typical then."

Pushing her annoyance aside, Sam said, "They made clones of us. Teal'c's didn't survive the cloning process…"

"As usual."

"…Daniel's clone sacrificed his life to make sure we got to the gate."

"Hey! You told me Daniel didn't die!"

She glared at him, "And I…. the other Sam…" She took a deep breath and tried again, "Apparently our genes have been 'copyrighted', like you, by the Asgard to ensure that we couldn't be cloned. The natives couldn't age me past seventeen. And they simply found that 'fascinating' at the time."

"There's no way you're seventeen, Carter. You look like a munchkin. You're fifteen. Sixteen at most," he evaluated.

Sam smirked (freakishly identical to her elder counterpart), "That's what my driver's license says though."

Driver's license! The Air Force had given her a driver's license?! Now that just wasn't fair.

The irony was too much for the sixteen year old ex-Colonel. "I'm fifteen years older than you, for crying out loud," he moaned.

They both laughed at the lunacy of the world until their sides hurt too much.

They rounded a corner, still laughing, when a moment of sudden insight caused Jack to stop walking abruptly. "Wait a second? What about me?!" He started pulling his (now abundant) hair, looking at Sam in dismay. "For crying out loud, please tell me that there isn't another Jack O'Clone wandering about!"

"There isn't. You weren't on the mission," she reassured him.

"For some reason that doesn't make me feel any better."

Sam had forgotten how 'out of the loop' he'd been for the last year or so. "You… He's been promoted. General O'Neill is now in charge of the SGC."

"WHAT?!"

And after the initial shock of the idea had washed over him, Jack laughed again –almost like a madman, with tears rolling down his cheeks.

When Jack could form complete sentences, they talked about it all without actually talking about it (the conversation made little sense to an outsider due to years of experience in secrecy on both sides).

Soon they reached Jack's apartment. He spent a few minutes searching for his keys (coat pockets, backpack, pant pockets). Sam, nice girl that she was, offered to pick the lock for him. Eventually, when the keys were found (in his pencil case of all places), the door was opened and Jack ushered her into the front hall.

He threw his jacket onto a chair, and told her to do the same. Fifteen minutes later, they were in his (small) kitchen drinking coffee. Leaning against the counter, the warm mug in his hands, Jack asked Sam a question that had been weighing on his mind for a while, "Why are you here, Carter? You should be off in a lab somewhere backwards engineering the next thingamajig that will wipe out the Goa'uld or the Replicators or both. Why high school? And don't say it was just to freak me out. That's the sort of thing I would do. In which case, you've been hanging around me… the other me… way too much."

And as usual, his words didn't come across the way Jack meant to. As a result, something decidedly awkward descended onto the two of them.

Also quite typically, Jack decided to say the stupid thing. "Have we been hanging out too much?" He looked down, fiddling with his coat/zipper/Velcro thingie.

"It's not like that between us… them."

"Still? Even a year later?"

"Yeah."

"Man, I'm glad I'm not him." And the first time, he sorta meant it.

Sam looked slightly nervous. Something that Jack recalled as a rarity in his past life. She was blushing? (Very cute. Not that he'd say that. That was the sort of comment that invited bodily harm.)

"Did you… did he…?" She stopped, as if she had second thoughts.

"Still care too much?" For some reason this was easy for Jack to say because it really wasn't her. It really wasn't him.

"Yeah."

"Always." And yet it still was them. Those still were the blue eyes he'd fallen in love with years ago.

It was something that their originals had never been able to talk about. It was something that they'd never been able to talk about. But maybe in this freakish world of High School they'd been given a second chance. A chance to be something the General and the Colonel could never be.

Jack decided to drop the serious thoughts for now (sixteen year old boys did not think seriously). He looked towards the miniature version of his former second-in-command, took one step too close, and gave her a feather-light kiss on the lips. It was worth it just for the stunned expression on her face. Jack tried to stop himself from smiling. Honestly. At least he wouldn't let any teeth show.

"Hey… wanna see my new Playstation?" he asked Sam, pulling her by the wrist into the living-room.

She recovered quickly, "That better not be a metaphor for something else."

So maybe not as stunned as he thought.

End

xxx

Reviews (good or bad) are much more fun to read than my Analytical Chemistry textbook. So please review, if only to save me from school-work. g.


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